had asked her to join them, and she was unpleasantly conscious that there were people on the River Drive who showed no more desire to make her acquaintance than when she had been Mrs. Lewis Babcock.  What did this mean?  It meant simply—­she began to argue—­that she must hold fast to her faith and bide her time.  That if she and her friends kept a bold front and resisted the encroachments of this pernicious spirit, Providence would interfere presently and confound these enemies of social truth no less obviously than it had already overwhelmed Mrs. Gregory Williams.  As the wife of the Governor, she was clearly in a position to maintain this bold front effectively.  Every mail brought to her requests for her support, and the sanction of her signature to social or charitable enterprises.  Her hospital was flourishing along the lines of the policy which she had indicated, and was feeling the advantage of her political prosperity.  She was able to give the petition in behalf of Mrs. Hamilton, which contained now twenty-five thousand signatures, fresh value and solemnity by means of an autograph letter from the Governor’s wife, countersigned by the Governor.  This, with the bulky list of petitioners, she addressed and despatched directly to Queen Victoria.  Her presence was in constant demand at all sorts of functions, at many of which she had the opportunity to make a few remarks; to express the welcome of the State, or to utter words of sympathy and encouragement to those assembled.  In the second month of her husband’s administration, she had the satisfaction of greeting, in her double capacity as newly-elected President of the Benham Institute and wife of the Governor, the Federation of Women’s Clubs of the United States, on the occasion of its annual meeting at Benham.  This federation was the incorporated fruit of the Congress of Women’s Clubs, which Selma had attended as a delegate just previous to her divorce from Babcock, and she could not refrain from some exultation at the progress she had made since then as she sat wielding the gavel over the body of women delegates from every State in the Union.  The meeting lasted three days.  Literary exercises alternated with excursions to points of interest in the neighborhood, at all of which she was in authority, and the celebration was brought to a brilliant close by a banquet, to which men were invited.  At this Selma acted as toastmaster, introducing the speakers of the occasion, which included her own husband.  Lyons made a graceful allusion to her stimulating influence as a helpmate and her executive capacity, which elicited loud applause.  Succeeding this meeting of the Federation of Women’s Clubs came a series of semi-public festivities under the patronage of women—­philanthropic, literary or social in character—­for the fever to perpetuate in club form every congregation, of free-born citizens, except on election day, had seized Benham in common with the other cities of the country in its grasp, to each of which the Governor’s wife was invited as the principal guest of honor.  Selma thus found a dozen opportunities to exhibit herself to a large audience and testify to her faith in democratic institutions.